HOW DO YOU WRITE THIS STUFF AND STILL KEEP YOUR JOB?

Lead paragraph of Ashley Parker's story on Jon Huntsman in The New York Times today:

Jon M. Huntsman Jr. again showed himself on Wednesday to be an ideological outlier in the Republican presidential field, calling for the tax code to be stripped of all loopholes and deductions.

Excuse me?

I'm sorry -- isn't a Times reporter supposed to have at least a nodding acquaintance with the facts pertaining to his/her subject?

I reviewed all this at great length recently. Rick Perry, in his book, suggests scrapping the income tax and replacing it with a national sales tax or the Fair Tax. Michele Bachmann's "main goal is to get tax rates down with a broad-based income tax that everyone pays and that 'gets rid of all the deductions,'" according to The Wall Street Journal. Ron Paul has proposed a 10% flat tax accompanied by an opportunity to opt out of federal programs. Herman Cain supports the Fair Tax. Newt Gingrich has been all over the map, but has expressed enthusiasm about a near-flat tax and an optional fully flat tax.

NPR's Scott Horsley was a lot closer to the truth this morning:

There's nothing in Huntsman's plan to distinguish him from the rest of the GOP field. His plan could have been cribbed from talking points of just about any Republican in Congress.

I think Parker of the Times is still mesmerized by Huntsman's effort to portray himself as the Last Honest Man, the guy who's not an ideological clone of anyone else, dammit. But on this he is a clone, or near enough to one.